The invention relates to a conveyor pan for face conveyors in underground winning or mining systems, in particular coal mining systems, with outward race and return race for guiding a scraper chain, between which a conveyor bottom is formed, with securing means attached to the ends of the conveyor pans on the goaf side and the wall side for a connecting component linking adjacent conveyor pans traction-proof together, preferably with guide means for a mining machine which may be moved along the wall and with a static loading ramp connected to the conveyor pan on the wall side and extending from the floor to the level of the outward race, by means of which muck may be loaded into the outward race as the face conveyor is advanced.
Conveyor pans for face conveyors are known in various embodiments. In underground workings in which the mining machine travels along the wall, as for example in workings using a plow, the muck can be loaded into the outward race of the face conveyor by means of special devices or guide plates on the mining machine. Conveyor pans with static loading ramps are used in particular in mining systems which operate using traveling mining machines, moving along between the conveyor and the wall, which have stationary mining machines, for example attached to the powered support assembly (DE 197 36 662), or which are designed as guides for drum cutter-loaders. In this type of workings with drum cutter-loaders the guide means on the wall side, for example a sliding rail or track for the drum cutter-loader, may simultaneously also form the lower section of the face conveyor loading ramp (DE 197 20 536).
Within face support systems, the conveyor pans connected together to form a face conveyor are advanced by means of the booms or pushers abutting the powered shield support frames. During advancing, the conveyor pans of the face conveyor tend to climb, in other words to rise up off the floor, and this disadvantageous climbing has to be countered with suitable control measures for adjusting the cutting horizon. Climbing of the face conveyor is particularly disadvantageous when, as in the case of drum cutter-loaders, the mining machine is guided along the face conveyor.